Blogs from Latvia, Europe - page 38

Europe » Latvia » Riga Region » Riga July 5th 2006

Just a quick note to say that I got the photo gallery going, thanks to my Riga host, Julija. It includes the pictures that are blacked out in the blog entries. ... read more

Ukrainian players, Building a Stadium

Europe » Latvia » Riga Region » Riga July 4th 2006

Kaunas Stadium

Vilius

I learned that Vikingas, one of the teams from Vilnius, has two Ukrainians on their team, one of them being the pitcher we faced that day. According to Sigitas, they have six paid players on the team. One paid player they acquired from another Vilnius Club, another from Utena (a city two hours away). In both cases the guys were on teams that did not have money to pay players. Sigitas did not how much they were paid, simply that they were paid. When I asked him how they could afford to pay six players, he explained to me that of all the teams in Lithuania without a home field, Vikingas was closest to getting one. They owned land in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, which is hard to come by, and Sigitas thinks that corporate ... read more

Last meal in Kaunas

Europe » Latvia » Riga Region » Riga July 4th 2006

Dinner on the Namonas

Vilius

After our game on Sunday I had dinner with Sigitas, his sister, and both of their families. They took me to a restaurant away from the city that was on the banks of the Namonas river, the largest river in Lithuania. And when we had our drinks, Birute made a toast. She said (translated by Sigitas) that she brought me to this spot because it was beautiful, and she wanted my last dinner to remind me of how beautiful Lithuania was so that I would come back. ‘Never forget Lithuania,’ she said. PS-check the gallery for photos.... read more

Final games in Lithuania

Europe » Latvia » Riga Region » Riga July 4th 2006

Mantas, Magilas

Vilius

On Saturday we drove to Vilnius to match up against Vikingas. We were missing four of our starters; I was most worried about Mantas because it meant that we had no catcher, and old Marius (35 year old) had to do it. The Ukrainian pitcher was pitching for Vikingas, and it was a close game. We lost 5-3, though four of the Vikingas runs were unearned. And there’re was one brutal out call at the plate where our guy was clearly safe, ending a potential rally. In arguing over the call, Marius (the player called out) called the umpire a series of dirty names (all in Russian) and was tossed from the game. Which meant that he would have to sit out the next days’ game, in which he was supposed to be our starting pitcher ... read more

Lietuvos Beisbolas

Europe » Latvia » Riga Region » Riga July 3rd 2006

Kaunas Lituanica

Vilius

More thoughts on baseball............ I have been thinking hard about baseball while I’ve been here. And about sports, why we play them, why they are important to us, and how they become important to us. And I think about how structured sport is in the US, even at the youth level (YMCA, Rainbow Soccer, Challenger, Little League, Pop Warner football…). Take little league baseball, for example. There is a clear structure for how it works. There is the coach. He is in charge of bringing the balls, helmets, gear, some bats….he is in charge of making sure the field is ready for play when his team is the home one. The league provides him with equipment, guidance for how things should be run. There are the parents, their job is to bring their kids to the ... read more

Crossing Borders

Europe » Latvia » Riga Region » Riga July 3rd 2006

Vilius

Interesting story from a few days ago...... One interesting topic of discussion that often comes up when I’m out having drinks with people here in Kaunas is the difficulty of getting to the US for Lithuanians. It is the same conversation that could be had in any number of countries involving applying for a visa into the US; we are a very difficult place to get to. Many Lithuanians have come to the US via a work visa, for anywhere from 2 to 4 months, but any longer is very difficult to come by. And often it becomes more difficult the second and third time around as the govt. becomes less and less lenient about visas (from what some Lithuanians have told me, each situation is different I think). I have heard numerous stories of people ... read more

Riga & Jurmala

Europe » Latvia June 26th 2006

Riga

Danieljh

wwe arrived in riga found our hostel then went out and got drunk .. the only problem with riga is all the idiot bucks nights packs of wankers.. while in riga we went to another beach in Jurmala got sunburnt then went back to the hostel drank some beers and then went and met more norwegians and went out and got more drunk becoz the girls were goin back to norway early in the mornin.. once i saw them away on the buses i staggered back to the hostel and went to sleep the next day i was gonna go to tallinn but it was full so i stayed another day got drunk with another aussie and watched the dirty filthy cheatin italians cheat there way to the next round in the wolrd cup.. after watchin ... read more

And we begin in Riga!!

Europe » Latvia » Riga Region » Riga June 12th 2006

Square in Riga

TimTam

(Welcome to the backlog/catch-up sessions. Back in June this year, two-days before we departed to South America, we spent two weeks in the Baltics and Russia.) 12 June 2006 Landed in Riga at 7.30pm to glorious sunshine and warm weather! Managed to get the bus to Riga with some Aussies (all very happy with their 3-1 win against Japan in the World Cup). On arrival at the hostel we were given free beer! Bit of a novelty. The 5 of us went to explore the vast expanse that is Riga... it's actually surprisingly small (and apparently the largest of the Baltic capitals). The hardest thing to get used to was the late sunlight. As we were out and about until the early hours it wasnt completely dark until after midnight! The next morning we went to ... read more

sourcreamapatomous

Europe » Latvia » Riga Region » Riga May 5th 2006

RIGA!

TJ Sargent

Hey Y'all (that's very Latvian!) So three balsamic something shots later here we are writing a blog.... I forgot my notebook today which is frustrating because that is our guide for writing these things! Well....I did make some random notes today so we'll go from that. Keep in mind that Sonja is drunk. There were some things that I wanted to wrap up about Estonia. Things like they were not as friendly as the people of Finland. Much more soft spoken but not to into smiling. Not sure how to take that. And not judging just from that "cheeseburger" experience but from all of our restaurant and tour experiences, but that customer service is not that great. Sub-par really. But, I was a server and maybe in North America we are just more used to everything ... read more

Easter Trip 06 - Lets fire a gun!

Europe » Latvia » Riga Region » Riga April 17th 2006

End of an Era

Julz and Bradbury

A group of our friends decided it would be a good idea to venture to Latvia for Easter. We were not disappointed. With 24hrs bars, cheap drinks, guns, food, and friends we had a great time. We left Thursday Afternoon and before we had landed in Riga I had got into the spirit of things by downing a whole bottle of after shock. The weather was mild, and we wondered around the old streets and the Russian markets getting a feel for the place the next day. The occupation / communism only ended in 1992, and there are areas of Russian and Latvian communities. We were told that there was still some animosity between the to. We managed to get primo tickets to a world cup warm up match in Ice Hockey between Russia and Latvia. ... read more

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